HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Issues FY24 Earnings Guidance

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Friday. The company provided EPS guidance of $19.70-21.20 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $20.60. The company issued revenue guidance of $67.75-70.25 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $69.06 billion. HCA Healthcare also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 19.700-21.200 EPS.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on HCA. Oppenheimer reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. StockNews.com upgraded HCA Healthcare from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Monday. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an overweight rating and set a $335.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $359.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $310.88.

HCA Healthcare Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of HCA stock traded down $7.52 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $306.60. The company had a trading volume of 2,257,039 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,107,586. The company has a 50 day moving average of $323.94 and a 200 day moving average of $295.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.07, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $81.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.65. HCA Healthcare has a 1-year low of $215.96 and a 1-year high of $335.83.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $5.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 996.30% and a net margin of 8.07%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $4.93 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare will post 20.58 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is presently 13.91%.

HCA Healthcare announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, January 30th that allows the company to buyback $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to buy up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 344 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.97, for a total value of $110,757.68. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 2,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $789,470.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Kathleen M. Whalen sold 4,262 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.21, for a total transaction of $1,305,067.02. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 10,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,138,652.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 344 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.97, for a total transaction of $110,757.68. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 2,452 shares in the company, valued at approximately $789,470.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 14,840 shares of company stock valued at $4,588,869. 1.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About HCA Healthcare

HCA Healthcare, Inc, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates hospitals and related healthcare entities in the United States. It operates general and acute care hospitals that offers medical and surgical services, including inpatient care, intensive care, cardiac care, diagnostic, and emergency services; and outpatient services, such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology, and physical therapy.